This competition based and tactical learning activity focuses on developing the following four areas of resilience: future-oriented mindset and optimism; flexibility and problem solving; perseverance and self-control; emotional awareness, regulation, and communication; and supportive social relationships. During the challenge, children may experience failures, things may not work as they had planned, but even then, they must control their emotions and do everything they can to help their team win.
This is a skill-based and tactical learning activity. To perform the activity, students work in teams to catch fish (with fishing rods equipped with magnetic “hooks”) containing various pieces of information. Each fish is associated with a piece of information or a task, which the participants try to work on in a way determined by the teacher in advance. After successfully completing the task, the activity can continue with new fish and tasks. The winner is the team that can complete the most tasks in the given time.
Primary Skill Focus:
- Resilience
Complementary/Secondary Skill Focus:
- Flexibility
- Problem solving
- Emotional awareness, regulation, and communication
| Age group | Student number | Duration |
| 7+ | whole class break into groups of 4 to 6 students | 10-15 minutes |
Proposed step by step implementation of the learning activity:
The activity is explained using a specific example: For example, if we want to use it in a math lesson, we should split the class into teams of preferably equal number of students. Each team receives the same worksheet with the results of math operations (addition, multiplication). The math operations are written in both side of the “fishes” The task is for the teams to find all the math operations (addition, multiplication), that match the results on the worksheet.
- We throw the fish into the “lake” so that the operations on them are clearly visible. In the basic case, there must be as many operations as there are teams, and each result corresponds to exactly one correct operation. (Changing these conditions makes the activity more difficult.)
- One player from each team fishes at a time, memorizes the math operation on the fish they catch, throws the fish back into the lake, and returns to their team.
- The team members work together to match the math operation on the caught fish with one of the results on the worksheet.
- Then another student can go to the lake to catch another fish.
- The activity takes place for a fixed amount of time, and the team with the most correct math operation matches wins.